FICTION

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselvesby Karen Joy Fowler
Coming of age in middle America, 18-year-old Rosemary evaluates how her entire youth was defined by the presence and forced removal of an endearing chimpanzee who was secretly regarded as a family member and who Rosemary loved as a sister. Lexile:ALA, Outstanding Books for the College Bound,

SCIENCE FICTION

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxyby Douglas Adams
Seconds before Earth is demolished to make room for a galactic freeway, an earthman is saved by his friend. Together they journey through the galaxy. Lexile: 1000

Parable of the Sowerby Octavia E. Butler
In 2025 California, an eighteen-year-old African American woman, suffering from a hereditary trait that causes her to feel others’ pain as well as her own, flees northward from her small community and its desperate savages. Lexile: 710ALA

Little Brotherby Cory Doctorow
After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right. Lexile: 900. Ebook can be downloaded for free here: http://bit.ly/1lLO4vtALA,

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth FantaskeyAs seventeen-year-old Jill Jekel and classmate Tristen Hyde work together on a chemistry project, hoping to win a scholarship for her and a cure for his curse, they also uncover family secrets and a chemistry of their own. Lexile:

Flowers for Algernonby Daniel Keyes
Charlie Gordon, born with an unusually low IQ, must face his gradual return to his former state when the astounding results of an experimental surgery that increased his intelligence prove to be only temporary. Lexile:ALA,

The Carbon Diaries, 2015by Saci Lloyd
In 2015, when England becomes the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing in a drastic bid to combat climate change, sixteen-year-old Laura documents the first year of rationing as her family spirals out of control. Lexile: 690

The Knife of Never Letting Goby Patrick Ness
Pursued by power-hungry Prentiss and mad minister Aaron, young Todd and Viola set out across New World searching for answers about his colony’s true past and seeking a way to warn the ship bringing hopeful settlers from Old World. Lexile: 860. Sequels: The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men.ALA, Outstanding Books for the College Bound,

A Confusion of Princesby Garth Nix
Battling aliens, space pirates, and competitors, Prince Khemri meets a young woman, named Raine, and learns more than he expected about the hidden workings of a vast, intergalactic Empire, and about himself. (Publisher) Lexile: 1070ALA,

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Austin Szerba narrates the end of humanity as he and his best friend Robby accidentally unleash an army of giant, unstoppable bugs and uncover the secrets of a decades-old experiment gone terribly wrong. Lexile:

Double Helixby Nancy Werlin
Eighteen-year-old Eli discovers a shocking secret about his life and his family while working for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose specialty is genetic engineering. Lexile: 690NBA Finalist,

The 5th Waveby Rick Yancey
Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them. Lexile: 690ALA,

GRAPHIC NOVELS

How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denialby Darryl CunninghamAuthor-illustrator Darryl Cunningham looks at hot-button science topics and presents a fact-based, visual assessment of current thinking and research on eight different issues everybody’s arguing about. Lexile:ALA,

Gris Grimly’s Frankensteinby Gris Grimly
Retells, in graphic novel format, Mary Shelley’s classic tale of a monster, assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies, who develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.

Feynmanby Jim Ottaviani
In this substantial graphic novel biography, First Second presents the larger-than-life exploits of Nobel-winning quantum physicist, adventurer, musician, world-class raconteur, and one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: Richard Feynman. Written by nonfiction comics mainstay Jim Ottaviani and brilliantly illustrated by First Second author Leland Myrick, Feynman tells the story of the great man’s life from his childhood in Long Island to his work on the Manhattan Project and the Challenger disaster. Ottaviani tackles the bad with the good, leaving the reader delighted by Feynman’s exuberant life and staggered at the loss humanity suffered with his death. (Publisher) Lexile: 620ALA,

POETRY

Steampunk Poeby Edgar Allan Poe
Presents a collection of Poe’s short stories and poems, including “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Raven,” accompanied by steampunk-inspired illustrations. Lexile:

NONFICTION

Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling up to Biotech’s Brave New Beastsby Emily Anthes
Examines the advances in cloning technology, including sensor-wearing seals, cyborg beetles, a bionic bulldog, and the world’s first cloned cat. Lexile:AAAS,

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Scienceby Marc Aronson
Sugar has left a bloody trail through human history. Cane–not cotton or tobacco–drove the bloody Atlantic slave trade and took the lives of countless Africans who toiled on vast sugar plantations under cruel overseers. And yet the very popularity of sugar gave abolitionists in England the one tool that could finally end the slave trade. This book traces the history of sugar from its origins in New Guinea around 7000 B.C. to its use in the 21st century to produce ethanol. Lexile: 1120ALA, NCSS,

Gulp.: Adventures on the Alimentary Canalby Mary Roach
Examines the alimentary canal and the digestive system, answering such questions as, can constipation kill a person, why the stomach doesn’t digest itself, how much can be eaten before the stomach bursts, and more. Lexile: . Or any book by Mary Roach.AAAS,

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacksby Rebecca Skloot
Examines the experiences of the children and husband of Henrietta Lacks, who, twenty years after her death from cervical cancer in 1951, learned doctors and researchers took cells from her cervix without consent which were used to create the immortal cell line known as the HeLa cell; provides an overview of Henrietta’s life; and explores issues of experimentation on African-Americans and bioethics. Lexile: 1140ALA, Outstanding Books for the College Bound

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandariesby Neil deGrasse Tyson
A collection of essays on the cosmos, written by an American Museum of Natural History astrophysicist, includes “Holy Wars,” “Ends of the World,” and “Hollywood Nights.” Lexile: 1300

The World Without Usby Alan Weisman
A study of what would happen to Earth if the human presence was removed examines our legacy for the planet, from the objects that would vanish without human intervention to those that would become long-lasting remnants of humankind. Lexile:ALA,

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR

The Radioactive Boys Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactorby Ken Silverstein
This book recreates David Hahn’s nuclear quest to build a breeder reactor in his backyard garden shed. Lexile: 1300ALA, Outstanding Books for the College Bound

Favorites & Classics

Speakby Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school. Lexile: 690

Kindredby Octavia Butler
A young African-American woman is mysteriously transferred back in time leading to an irresistible curiosity about her family’s past. Lexile: 580

Feedby M. T. Anderson
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble. Lexile: 770

The Handmaid’s Taleby Margaret Atwood
Set in the near future, America has become a puritanical theocracy and Offred tells her story as a Handmaid under the new social order. Lexile: 750

Ender’s Gameby Orson Scott Card
Young Ender Wiggin may prove to be the military genius Earth needs to fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race that will determine the future of the human race. Lexile: 780

The House on Mango Streetby Sandra Cisneros
A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends. Lexile: 850

The Perks of Being a Wallflowerby Stephen Chbosky
A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials of a high-schooler named Charlie. Lexile: 720

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closeby Jonathan Safran Foer
Follows nine-year-old Oskar Schell as he encounters a number of interesting characters in his search for information about his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and tries to find the lock that fits the mysterious key he left behind. Lexile: 940

The Fault in Our Starsby John Green
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life. Lexile: 850

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-yearold boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor’s dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. Lexile: 1180

Monsterby Walter Dean Myers
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-yearold Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.Lexile: 670

Persepolisby Marjane Satrapi
Contains black-and-white comic strip images in which the author shares the story of her life in Tehran, Iran, where she lived from ages six to fourteen while the country came under control of the Islamic regime. Lexile: 380

A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Young Francie Nolan, having inherited both her father’s romantic and her mother’s practical nature, struggles to survive and thrive growing up in the slums of Brooklyn in the early twentieth century. Lexile: 810

Buried Onionsby Gary Soto
When nineteen-year-old Eddie drops out of college, he struggles to find a place for himself as a Mexican American living in a violence-infested neighborhood of Fresno, California. Lexile: 850

Series

Weetzie Bat series by Francesca Lia BlockThe Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra ClareEarthseaseries by Ursula K. Le GuinHis Dark Materials series by Philip PullmanShivertrilogy by Maggie SteifvaterDaughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini TaylorUgliesseries by Scott Westerfeld